If you’re in the mood to draw ire from people with excruciatingly rigid beliefs, the Internet is generally a good place to start. While you’re at it, might as well pick a particularly polarizing topic. Why not evolution?

Now, that probably wasn’t exactly how the conversation went down over at the marketing offices of Dr. Pepper, but a recent ad for the soft drink posted on Facebook — with the slogan “Evolution of Flavor” — sparked a healthy dose of controversy nonetheless. Based on the iconic evolution diagram “March of Progress,” the ad features an ape who, after drinking Dr. Pepper, turns into a man. The ad went up Thursday, and by Friday had garnered more than 26,000 “Likes” and over 4,000 comments.

This is, of course, still the Internet — so plenty of comments in question are loaded with snark from people who mainly appear to be provoking for the sake of provocation. Several commenters, however, expressed disapproval of Dr. Pepper — believing, apparently, that the ad showed support for the scientific theory of evolution — and vowing to boycott the product. “I ain’t no freaking chimp. No more Dr Pepper for my household. God Bless y’all,” one user wrote. Another chimed in with, “I have lost all respect for Dr Pepper and if Dr Pepper wants business from thousands of people they will need to apologize.”

As the debate roiled on, pro-evolution commenters expressed their support of the company, vowing to stand by Dr Pepper no matter what. One person, for example, promised he’d continue drinking the soda even “if they announced they pissed in the formula.”

No matter what you believe regarding evolution, creationism, Christianity, Dr. Pepper, unicorns, cyborgs, narwhals or anything else, the campaign was a huge if inadvertent win for the soft drink company. As one Facebook commenter points out, “DR Pepper scored with this one. It’s all over the internet now. The Creationists just made this ad famous. Sweet, sweet irony.”

"While you’re at it, might as well pick a particularly polarizing topic. Why not evolution?"

I'm sorry, but evolution isn't a "polarizing" topic, just like the roundness of the Earth isn't a polarizing topic. Yes, there are mo­rons out there that don't believe the science, but again, they're mo­rons.

watch Ben Stein discuss opposing views against Darwinism with one ofDarwinism's foremost proponents and try to with an open mind if you really believe this theory based on science and intellectual honesty

i wonder how many have seen the incredible documentary "expelled - no intelligence allowed" which explores the outright near-fascism within the education establishment which does not even entertain the idea of a competing view against evolution - such as ID or Intelligent Design regardless of how much overwhelming scientific evidence supports it. So much for open-minded and intellectually honest debate.

Evolution is most certainly NOT a scientifically proven fact at all. The real fact is that much of the scientific community is abandoning the idea over ID, Intelligent Design. Evolution has always been a theory and nothing more. Anyone who's seen the movie "Expelled" with Ben Stein, in which he has a sitdown discussion with one of the foremost proponents of Darwin's THEORY, soon discover that Ben Stein mops up the floor with him in about two seconds with the most basic questions that even a child can easily grasp and he literally leaves the man almost stuttering. Most believe the THEORY because they were taught and brainwashed in the public indoctrination centers known as public schools, not because of independent scientific inquiry. The fact is that most people believe it without really having any understanding of science, but are heavily propagandized.

Wonderful example and explanation of evolution in action in E. coli. It happens. We can document it. We use evolution and the resultant similarity of all life in molecular biology and drug development on a DAILY basis. Get over it.

While i can agree with you that religion has had an impact on t social, political and foreign policy some religion such as Christianity has the power to teach our society right from wrong so that we don't go around killing everyone for something as dumb as someone's opinion, or color of skin(if more people would read the bible people could understand how to behave properly.).

Teaching Children as well as adults to forgive and forget,teaching people how to be accepting of others despite their differences, teaching people how to give to those in need, teaching about lying to one another and what that does to other people,teaching that hurting others is wrong.

I could go on and on about the biblical teachings and the good that they teach and you need to admit that even if you aren't a believer that these teachings are not just good for believers but good for the non believers.

So, I just think that you could look at it negatively or bring in the positives that the Bible teaches.

There is no conflict between Evolution and the Bible. When the scientists and the theologians disagree, it is far more likely that the theologians have misinterpreted scripture than it is that the scientists have misinterpreted nature.

The 'day' in Genesis is the Hebrew word 'yom' which refers to an unspecified time period, and could easily refer to a day, century or a geologic epoch. You will also notice that the order in which G*D created the different species of animals is the same as the order that they arise in Evolution. Genesis tells us what G*D achieved, and Evolution gives us the details of how HE achieved it.

The vast majority of Christians worldwide believe in Theistic Evolution. The creationists are just a very vocal, simple minded few, who embarrass the rest of us and our Lord Jesus the Christ. Ignorance can be cured but stupid is forever.

The article just said you've all been manipulated by the corporation that created the ad. It's causing you all to fight over nothing. Stop showing Dr. Pepper that you can be played like instruments and settle down.

Someone's sounding mighty neanderthal here. I tell you what, have yourself a Dr. Pepper. It will clear your head and get you over that hump. That way you won't feel so much like that poor hunched over "man in the middle". And afterwards, you can count yourself as Lucky and celebate with a Pierre.

By the way, what's with the three guys staring at each others bu tts? That's just not a decent way to get ones rrockos off.

Fun how people wallow in a several thousand year old middle eastern goat herder and camel driver mythology thinking it has anything to do with reality and then go make themselves look like complete morons with protests like this. Go ahead - you will soon have to live in a cave to avoid all the things you find questionable!

@intellectualchristian07 Most believe the THEORY (of intelligent design) because they were taught and brainwashed in the public indoctrination centers known as churches, not because of independent scientific inquiry. The fact is that most people believe it without really having any understanding of science, but are heavily propagandized.

The point of calling it "theory" is that it is logically impossible to replicate steps A-Z, which took billions of years, however we have factual evidence of steps A-B, C-D and so on, and are able to replicate these smaller steps with repeatable experimentation. There's some great work out there concerning creating cell like structures out of simple chemicals, and increasing their complexity by engulfment of other cell like structures. Amazing what you can do when you can contain a chemical reaction in a small structure. Also, won't be long before bird and lizard genomes are publicly posted for anyone with a high school education to compare. Thus far, we were focused on putting out mammalian genomes. Has already been demonstrated that knocking out a certain gene induces tooth growth in chickens - looking forward to see what secrets the actual full sequences bring to light.

You heard the man. All two of you people who are posting here and are actually not really fighting nor are being manipulated, put that fec es you don't have in your apish but not really ape-like hands back in your pockets and stop not flinging it at each other. It's some smelly as-s sh-it anyway. Instead, let's settle this like our ancestors did. Let's all go have a banana, pick some fleas off each other, climb into some trees, stare stupidly at the grubs on the nearby leaves for a few hours, and just calm the hell down. It's absolutely not toxic here, with all the fighting that's not going on. All these posts flinging around at a rate of one or two every couple of hours is making this place almost not like a blood bath.

After all, we wouldn't want Dr. Pepper to think something was up when, like everyone else, the company could care less about these postings and doesn't even know about them, and could care the less if it did know, just like all the millions of people who are not posting here and maybe the one or two who actually are.